What is your favorite quote? And why?

[kruttikam]

Some of my favs are...

Speak softly and carry a big stick.
-Roosevelt I think

I regret not the things I've done but those I did not do.
-I forget, if anyone knows, tell me

I may disagree with what you have to say but I will fight to the death to defend your right to say it.
-Voltaire

Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed that he has grown so great?
-Shakespeare

The whole world sees me as just one person, I want just one person to see me as the whole world.
-I made this up. It was based on someone's signature link though, I just changed it so it sounded better. No idea where its from originally.

"Better is a dinnerof herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."
-Solomon

"The world is a comedy,to those who think; a tragedy to those who feel."
-Horace Walpole

[a_little_wisp]

Sorry, long list (I simply cannot pick just one)... None of these will get me far in life, LOL, but I truly love them, and return to them when I'm feeling a little lost in life. I've collected them throughout my life thus far, and these are some of the ones that have stuck with me most (I do have more, of course). Most of them are about stories, some of them make me smile, others, thoughtful, and... I suspect all of them reflect little pieces of myself.

"In imagination she sailed over storied seas that wash the distant shining shores of "faery lands forlorn," where lost Atlantis and Elysium lie, with the evening star for pilot, to the land of Heart's Desire. And she was richer in those dreams than in realities; for things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen are eternal."

- L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island

"I'M SIGNIFICANT,'
...screamed the dust speck." - Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.”

"I think... that I would rather recollect a life mis-spent on fragile things than spent avoiding moral debt."

-Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things


"It was in fairy-stories that I first divined the potency of words, and the wonder of things, such as stone, and wood, and iron, tree and grass, house and fire; bread and wine."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories (essay)

"The realm of fairy-story is wide and deep and high and filled with many things: all manner of beasts and birds are found there; shoreless seas and stars uncounted; beauty that is an enchantment, and an ever-present peril; both joy and sorrow as sharp as swords. In that realm a man may, perhaps, count himself fortunate to have wandered, but its very richness and strangeness tie the tongue of a traveller who would report them. And while he is there it is dangerous for him to ask too many questions, lest the gates should be shut and the keys be lost."
- J.R.R Tolkien, On Fairy-Stories (essay)

"'What do you fear, lady?'" he asked.
"'A cage,'" she said. "'To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.'"
- Eowyn/ J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

“Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the Fox from The Little Prince


"There has never been a world in which I was not known."

"I know exactly how you feel," Schmendrick said eagerly. The unicorn looked at him out of dark, endless eyes, and he smiled nervously and looked at his hands. "It's a rare man who is taken for what he truly is," he said. "There is much misjudgment in the world. Now I knew you for a unicorn when I first saw you, and I know that I am your friend. Yet you take me for a clown, or a clod, or a betrayer, and so must I be if you see me so. The magic on you is only magic and will vanish as soon as you are free, but the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes. We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream."

-Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn.

[IndigoStorm]

Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.

[Moshu]

"Outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's to dark to read."

[IndigoStorm]

A .45 beats a Royal Flush every time!

[ntropyincarnate]

"Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws." ~ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

"I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that's where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate." ~ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

[beroq]

My top ten quotes includes one from Barack Obama, which is:

"My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success."

[angeldance5]

curiousity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect

blank verse is like a tennis match with no net, freer

[AuntShecky]

If you "Google" the quotation "Either that wallpaper goes or I do," you find scores of links attributing it to Oscar Wilde. Nevertheless, Robert Byrne's 1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said (Fawcett, 1988), states on p. 250: that the quotation is "Almost certainly not the last words of Oscar Wilde." (Boldface mine.)

But I do believe that these were the last words of Ronald Firbank, the flamboyant British novelist. Does anyone know the correct speaker for sure? You really can't trust the Web for absolute accuracy. For instance, an article about poetry on Slate a few months ago misattributed a line to Ezra Pound when it in fact had been written by Auden. Also the Wikipedia entry for Saul Bellow has his date of birth a full month early.

[Midnight_Star]

One of my favorite quotes is from Ceaser,
"Veni, vidi, vici!" -"I came, I saw, I conquared!"
It has such a powerful meaning towards it.
"I Came," Is just beautiful to me.
"I saw," Is the lead up to...
"I Conquared!" The powerfulness to the whole saying.
And the Quote from Eldest, "Thorn is my dragon and a thorn he shall be to all our enemies." Just Rocks!

[rima]

There is a nice task to make a choice of numerous quotations.It happens to have on my desk a book by Italian Author Francesco Guicciardini XV century.The most precious attribute of him was brilliant mind.

"The revenge doesn't come from hate or bad nature each time,then sometimes there is e need of that in order to be an example, by which others to be learned not to offend anyone.It is all right for a man to get revenge on one by not cherishing hate against that person"

"Indeed,people to whom the same opportunity has been given by the second time are really happy.For the first time man possibly missis it or makes bad use of that as much as wise to be;but, who doesn't understand it and is not able to take advantage of it by second time,that one is very unreasonable."

"People gifted by Spirit to be above the average have that gift to be suffering and calamity of their,for of that,they have nothing more but pain and efforts that are unknown of ordinary people"

It is translation from a book written by Ivo Andric Serbian author and awarded Nobel prize, who translated it from Italian.
Feel free to make some corrections /if it allowed /in my translation to English.

[optimisticnad]

There is a nice task to make a choice of numerous quotations.It happens to have on my desk a book by Italian Author Francesco Guicciardini XV century.The most precious attribute of him was brilliant mind.

"The revenge doesn't come from hate or bad nature each time,then sometimes there is e need of that in order to be an example, by which others to be learned not to offend anyone.It is all right for a man to get revenge on one by not cherishing hate against that person"

"Indeed,people to whom the same opportunity has been given by the second time are really happy.For the first time man possibly missis it or makes bad use of that as much as wise to be;but, who doesn't understand it and is not able to take advantage of it by second time,that one is very unreasonable."

"People gifted by Spirit to be above the average have that gift to be suffering and calamity of their,for of that,they have nothing more but pain and efforts that are unknown of ordinary people"

It is translation from a book written by Ivo Andric Serbian author and awarded Nobel prize, who translated it from Italian.
Feel free to make some corrections /if it allowed /in my translation to English.

Sorry not relevant to this thread but - - rima you've stolen my nickname!

[rima]

Sorry not relevant to this thread but - - rima you've stolen my nickname!

O.K.Thought this Author is more than respected to be quoted here;his mind is brilliant and saying beautiful, and maybe not widely enough recognized.And yes,it is from a book compiled by Serbian Nobel awarded prize Author Ivo Andric.
Quotations are partly a literature feature.
If you like one of my, favorite is

"What you meet in your dreams you can achieve in reality,for in the reality is everything possible."

"All my life i have been trying to live up to my good intentions,which are my real and genuine inside being;but i met wrong answers."

[billl]

rima, I don't know why optimisticnad said those quotes weren't relevant to the thread. Maybe optimisticnad thought they were your OWN quotes (that you created yourself)...? They were pretty difficult to understand, though. I imagine they're pretty difficult to translate.

I think the two quotes in your second post are good ones, (and easier to understand)!

[billl]

The quote that I always think of first for lists like these is from Yogi Berra. He was talking about a restaurant or a nightclub or something:

"No one goes there anymore--it's too crowded."

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And another funny one by Mark Twain, describing a rival's book:

"Once I put it down, I couldn't pick it back up."